Millions of Americans are losing their insurance as a result of the new Obamacare mandates. There's no discrimination, either: old, young, poor, affluent, healthy and sick are all losing coverage - despite President Obama's last-ditch political ploy to try to say that the minimum coverage enforcement provisions would be delayed for a year.
Meet Sharon Ingerson, a nurse from Virginia whose insurance is getting canceled:
My plan does not qualify under the Affordable Care Act because it does not include maternity coverage. I am a 41-year-old woman with three children (one with moderate-severe autism and mental retardation). I am not having any more children.
This is ridiculous. However, it gets worse. Optima gave me my options. Now I have a $2,500 deductible with 100 percent coverage after the deductible is met. The family deductible is $5,000. The plan costs $209 per month. This is not a substandard plan.
I have a health savings account where I have saved more than $12,000, so if my family needs health care, I can provide for them.
The new Obamacare plans are worse in every regard. They are not better and I do not save $2,500, as President Obama promised so many times.
Ingerson says she will have to pay $465 per month more - or over $5000 per year - in premiums. While she doesn't say if she'll be covered by Obamacare's tax subsidies, that's still an unacceptable increase in cost, driven by coverage mandates, that a middle-class American will face. Progressives are fond of pointing out that the post-subsidy out-of-pocket cost of insurance is important, the unsubsidized premium cost is also extremely important - especially when it comes to bending the health cost curve over long periods of time.
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Sharon Ingerson is a middle-class American with a family. She's losing her health coverage, and her new plan will be unnecessarily lavish. Obama should explain to her why he thinks this is a necessary step to his perception of a better health system.
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